New Arrivals

[Niro]

Sai's 'sermon' at the inn in Aroma Country was his first success at coming away from the performance with another believer, whether it was fledgling or an enthrallment like his own. The Toukai and the Nara, Daisuke, had vanished beneath the cover of night and the aid of multiple horrible thunderstorms sweeping through the dense foliage making up Aroma Country. The woods were nearly flooded but the pair trudged through the mud and roots as they made their way south and away from the village containing the mangled and twisted bodies of Sai's audience. Aroma Country soon turned into Wind Country and the climate seemed to mock them even further. While Sai had lamented the density of the flora and fauna in Aroma, traveling through Wind made him regret the thought. They had tried to travel through it for several days before giving up after being attacked by a gigantic lizard and forced to cross the border into the Heart Empire.

The pair slept in shifts during the day in trees and abandoned homes or shacks while traveling at night to avoid the patrols throughout the country. More than once did Sai or Dai have to wake the other up and the pair flee from their temporary base as samurai caught a whiff of them. At least the weather in Heart was more hospitable than Aroma or Wind; the weather had been clear and the temperature warm enough to sleep outside but not freeze at night. The trek through the countryside eventually brought them to a small town of Socha. There the two were able to mingle into the local populace as war refugees from Wind and gain employment performing manual labor during the day.

At night, Sai performed experiments utilizing Yalda's gift in the sewers of the town. The pair kidnapped men, women, and even children in the middle of the night and brought them down to be inducted into Sai's grand audience. One of the caverns deep within the sewers contained a laboratory set up; a platform made of stone and wood with several tables filled with beakers of different colored liquids lining it. Off to the side, tables with straps to secure any test subjects. Torches lined the walls of the cave, a sickly gray material keeping the wood secured to the stone.

Sai sat at the table in the middle of the platform mixing spores with different types of chemicals to test their response. The latest batch of test subjects had rejected the previous concoction almost immediately and self-terminated in the process. While he stayed back to work on a new formula, Dai had gone out to procure a few more subjects for the next set of testing. It had been a few hours now and as the last drop of the chemical in his left hand fell into the vial of the chemical in his right, Sai could hear footsteps and the sound of someone, or multiple someones, being drug towards him.

"How was it tonight? I trust you had...little issue?" Sai asked, his eyes moving from the reacting chemicals to the figure at the cavern entrance and focusing on them in the low light.

[ThatGuy]

Daisuke had been quite busy obtaining fresh test subjects for his new friend Sai. They both had been spending the majority of the day doing manual labor, but their real work started at night. They both played to their talents. Sai experimenting with “Yalda’s gifts,” and Dai making people disappear. Both of them could easily overpower anyone in the village and drag them into the sewers, but it was a bit too high-profile and, honestly, rather boring. Daisuke found it much more entertaining to figure out a way to trick people into coming with him. Given his appearance, it was difficult to do so without someone noticing him talking to those who would go one to disappear, or at least it would be difficult, were he not a trained shinobi. With transformation jutsu and a few honeyed words, he’d been able to manage a steady supply of test subjects.

His catch of the night was a man and woman with a young child desperate to escape a particularly predatory loan shark. Their debts had piled up to the point where it was only a matter of time before one of them was sold, either whole or in pieces. Daisuke approached them under the guise of a man willing to smuggle them out of the city for a price. After they paid him what little they had left, he lured them a ways out of town and knocked out the man before tying up and gagging all three of them. There was an entrance to the sewer outside of town that Daisuke walked the woman and child through as he dragged the man’s unconscious body alongside him. With their arms bound and her husband held hostage, there was little the woman could do but obey Daisuke. When Sai greeted him, the Nara gave his friend a large smile before presenting his haul for the day.

“I grabbed a three-piece family meal for Yalda! They’re in so much debt that no one will question their disappearance. A bit too easy if you ask me.”

Feeling daring, he tossed the unconscious man to the side and cut the rope binding the woman’s arms. She immediately reached up and undid her gag before letting out a scream for help. Daisuke simply tilted his head and watched. The horrors of Yalda’s gifts elicited much louder screams than she could muster. For now, at least.

“We’re the only ones who can hear you down here. Even if that wasn’t the case, do you really think there are people in Socha capable of saving you?”

Sai might not have liked it, but Daisuke needed to have his fun. Things had gone far too smoothly, and he’d barely gotten a chance to soak in the family’s despair. He let out a chuckle as the woman grabbed her child and attempted to run away. Dai’s shadow shot out and made contact with hers, binding the woman in place.

“Who told you that you could leave?”

“Fuck you!”

Daisuke shot her the same look that a mother would give a disobedient child. He started to move his, and the woman found herself forced to mimic his movements. Slowly, he forced her to wrap her hands around her child’s throat.

“If my puppet won’t dance, I suppose they’ll have to put on another show.”

“Please! Don’t!”

“Hmm… I want an apology.”

“I’m sorry! Just please stop!”

He took in the scene as he pretended to think about her plea. If it wasn’t for the need for test subjects, this is normally where he would have ended things. With a mother being forced to kill her own before joining them shortly after, the agony of the situation was more than enough to get Daisuke the high he craved. Suddenly, he let go and raised his finger in an exaggerated motion before excitedly turning to Sai, the woman still mimicking his movements.

“Idea! If the hosts keep rejecting the gifts and dying shortly after, what if we found a way to share the burden. A wa-”

“PLEASE JUST LET US GO!”

“SHUT UP!”

Daisuke dropped the mimicry jutsu and put the gag back in, still leaving the woman bound by her shadow. As much as he’d like to hear her beg a bit more, he had more important business to attend to.

“Would the resilience of, say, three people be able to hold a single gift? Is that even possible?”

[Niro]

Daisuke had certainly done well in procuring three more subjects for Sai to test his newfound knowledge in combination with Yalda's Gift. Sai stood up with the vial in his hand, the spores interacting with the mixture of liquid within and began to bubble and it from a dark pink to a disgusting green. The various chemicals he had been able to steal and scavenge from Socha's industrial and medical buildings were only truly usable due to the accompanying medical and chemical textbooks and literature he had pilfered as well. With both the knowledge and the materials, he had been fervent in reading through the texts and applying the things he learned from them in real time to his subjects. Now was another opportunity to test his budding knowledge.

Just like the prostitutes, transients, war orphans, drunks, and unaccompanied children who wandered into the sewers, these vermin were those who wouldn't be missed by society. Sai walked across the space and crouched over the unconscious father as the woman screamed and Daisuke puppetted her. Her screams bounced off the walls of the cavern but it wouldn't matter. The pair had carved out a tunnel from the main sewer and made their own unmapped pathway until luckily breaking through to this cavern. Even if someone did become suspicious one of the subjects had gone missing, navigating to this unmapped area deep within the sewers would be impossible for normal people.

Sai's dirty fingers groped at the man's mouth before parting his dry lips enough to dribble a third of the contents of the vial between them and down his throat. Some of the vile liquid spilled over his lips and down his face only for a light sizzle to follow the trail as the acidic compounds within burned at the man's flesh. The man's eyes shot wide open and began to splutter in pain as the liquid worked its way down his esophagus and into his stomach. He stood up frantically only to immediately kneel over in pain and begin to scratch at his stomach before tumorous growths erupted from each of his orifices and then more burst forth from his stomach, splattering his entrails everywhere. Strangled, desperate gurgles eventually faded away as Sai moved to the child paralyzed in fear. The poor thing offered no resistance as Sai pried its mouth open just like its father and poured a smaller amount down its throat.

The screams of desperation coming from the mother only grew more insane as she realized the fate of her husband would also befall her child. Sai wasn't one to not share so as she screamed again, he poured the remaining liquid down her throat. The burning reaction of the mixture garbled her screams as blood began to pool and escape her mouth while the child doubled over first and fall on the ground where it twitched for some time before falling still.

"Disappointing. Even with so little, the subjects expire."

The mothers screams continued even as growths began to explode her mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. She clawed at the tumors as they sprung forth while futily crawling to her child. The growths seemed to stop and stabilize as she scooped the child in her arms before a final death wail escaped her destroyed throat and mutated form. Her stomach exploded like her husbands as growths erupted forth and she fell back and the light left her eyes.

Sai clicked his tongue in disappointment. All three had perished, again. He stood up and turned to walk back to his set up only for the sound of chewing to catch his ear. Sai turned back to find the child, insanely mutated but alive, now chewing on the exposed entrails of his mother.

His skin and hair had instantly bleached from the stress and the chemicals stripping his body of melanin while his mouth had morphed into something more akin to a frog as his throat and thorax expanded to a grotesque size while attempting to consume an entire leg of his mother. Sai had stepped closer and freed the light of the flames lining the laboratory platform from behind him. No longer in shadow, the mutant screeched and scuttled off on all fours into a dark corner in the room.

Sai began a low chuckle which eventually turned into a hysterical laugh. So, it could work after all.

"I guess that answers the question for us."

[ThatGuy]

Daisuke had been too caught up in his fun to notice the husband until Sai was already headed towards the child. Sai didn’t give a verbal answer to his question. The Toukai didn’t really have a way with words. Instead, it seemed like he was going to provide a demonstration. As the mother's screams grew even more frantic, Daisuke soaked up the tragedy of it all. A woman is completely unable to help her child, even the slightest bit, as she watches them die in an extremely painful fashion.

Daisuke kept watching the kid even as Sai made his way to the mother. He loved watching Yalda’s gifts in action. To actually see something mutate and change right before your eyes was something else. Tumorous growths sprouted from the young boy’s body and began to pulsate. His eyes turned a milky white as blood poured from his mouth. By this point, the mother was crawling over to her child, barely able to cling on to life as she cradled him in her arms. Much like all the other test subjects, her body was unable to handle the transformation, and her stomach exploded. Sai was right. It was very disappointing. The Toukai had been hard at work trying to find a way to harness his powers to create something even more beautiful than the scene they had left behind in Aroma Country.

With a sigh, the Nara walked over to the husband’s body to start cleaning up their impromptu laboratory. A messy room harbors a messy mind, as they say. But he stopped as he noticed a peculiar sound. A large smile grew on Daisuke’s face as he discovered the source of the sound. The tumors that had grown from the child seemed to have morphed and stabilized, turning the young boy into something vaguely resembling a giant frog. It was feasting on the corpse of its former mother. It was so horrifically tragic. Only ruined by the fact that the worthless mother couldn’t have stayed alive for just a few more minutes so she could be aware of the fact that she was being eaten alive by her precious boy in her final moments. Oh well. The first draft is never perfect. As the creature scurried into the shadows, the Nara turned to Sai and spoke.

“Fascinating. Do you think it was the dose? Too little for the parents, but just enough for someone the size of the child. Maybe it’s because he was so young. The body is already primed for growth at that age, so it might have handled the mutation a bit better.”

Sai would have a much better idea of what was going on. He was the scientist after all. Daisuke’s specialty had more to do with understanding how people worked. There was nothing he loved more than studying and exploiting behaviors, so he found himself studying this new creature intently. Reaching into the corpse of the husband, he dug around for a moment until he found the man’s liver and pulled it out. Thankfully, it was still intact. Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and an absolute treat for carnivorous wildlife. Stepping slowly towards the shadows, he reached out his hand and offered the food to the creature.

“The shadows are safe. I bet you used to hear stories about how dangerous they were and how monsters lurked within them. They’re true. But to monsters like you, it’s the opposite. The light is dangerous and inhabited by horrible humans. They would love nothing more than to brand you a disgusting abomination and kill you on sight. So you have to grow big and strong so that if they dare step in the shadows, you can gobble them up.”

The frog-child inched towards Daisuke as he spoke. Clearly trying to decide if the young man was a threat or not. He absolutely was. The Nara had been channeling a shadow binding jutsu in case the creature made a wrong move when approaching him. He wondered if the boy was still conscious. It was unlikely due to his lack of hesitation in eating his mother’s corpse right after transformation, but Daisuke hoped otherwise. The creature’s milky-white eyes were watery, and tears ran down its pale face. It was likely due to its sensitive eyes being exposed to the light, but Daisuke had the delicious thought that the boy was stuck watching the actions of the monster that piloted his body, completely helpless as it turned to the only family he knew as a food source. Just the thought was enough to fill the Nara with a sense of euphoria. Turning to Sai, he wondered what they were going to do now that they had a successful test subject.

“So what now? I assume you want to run some tests. I’d love to let it loose and see how it adapts to its environment. It's not a great idea, seeing as the moment someone spots a frog-child in the sewers, they’re going to launch an investigation. But advancements are not made without risk, right? This town will witness the influence of Yalda eventually. But it’s your call.”

A disgusting, slimy growth that barely resembled a tongue reached out from the creature's mouth and retrieved the liver. Rather than retreating further into the shadows, it stayed close to Daisuke as it ate. Normally, this was a sign of a sort of rapport being built between someone and an animal, but it was hard to tell if that extended to mutated monstrosities. Pulling out a kunai, he dragged the two corpses closer to the shadows and cut off pieces to feed the creature. Perhaps with time it could grow large enough to swallow an entire body, but for now it would need to stick to smaller prey.

[Niro]

The disgusting twinkle in Sai's eyes and twisted, toothy smile covering his face betrayed the blank white mask he wore over it. A breakthrough, finally. He was beginning to wonder where he was going wrong with each new experiment leading to a failed outcome no closer to the godly images and forms he had been made privy to during his communion with the eldritch god known as Yalda. Each previous experiment seemed as if they were there, on the cusp of turning into the First Form, before withering away within minutes as their bodies struggled and were unable to acclimate the mixture of chemicals introduced to them. It hadn't mattered how he had altered the makeup of the solution; too much of one thing or another led to it immediately killing the test subject. The only thing he could experiment with was dose before having to go back to the drawing board and completely redoing the formula from scratch. This, however, was a step in the right direction. The Toukai cells swirling within the child's body ravaged it and forced it to undergo such an extreme change, Sai was surprised the child had survived after all. He was still worried it might just expire in a few days but pushed the thoughts away for now. Something to ponder if it did fail.

"A combination of the two factors. Believe the age and size has more to do with it than the dose, however. The younger the subject, the more adaptable the material, to a point, it seems. Assume too young and the material will expire just like if it was too old. Intrigued about teenaged subjects, will have to test further to see if material undergo similar transformation or also expire like parents. Focus efforts on luring similarly aged children and teens for now, whole families may draw too much suspicion for such little scientific reward."

Sai watched as Daisuke treated the test subject as if it was a normal animal they had found on the street. Rather than saying anything, he continued to observe. Any data on this new life was good data as far as he could tell. If it did expire, at least he had more information to log and work on for the next batch of material. Was it aggressive? Would it recognize the two as the people responsible for the murder and mutilation of its human family? The thoughts vanished from his mind once it reached out with its elongated tongue to take the liver of its father from Daisuke's hands. A jagged set of teeth tore at the liver futility as it tried to use Daisuke to hide from the lights.

"Seems to have an extreme photophobia. The more light, the worse off it'll be. For now we'll feed it. Keep watch on growth rate, see it this stability is momentary or permanent. Doubt it is done mutating. Once it reaches an adequate size, then we'll release it into the sewers to fend for itself. Continue to monitor but allow it to roam and develop its own identity. Best to fortify the lab and deeper sections of the sewers now while presence is still unknown to surrounding population. Eventually, children disappearing will draw attention. Should create an escape route for when whoever does come comes. Even more so if able to replicate successfully and populate sewers with more of Yalda's children."

"Struggle and survive so your parents sacrifices aren't in vain, little one. Grow strong from their flesh for we have many to preach to, Aamon."

Newly crowned with a name and a ravenous hunger, Aamon continued to wolf down bits and pieces of its former parents as soon as Daisuke was able to toss it another chunk. While its head and thorax had expanded to become more frog-like, the rest of its body was covered in bulbous cysts that threatened to pop at any moment. The more it ate, the faster the liquid swirling within the cysts became until some of them pathetically popped and began to ooze down its back. A large cyst had formed on its crown and popped as well to reveal a new appendage that came jutting forth as if another tongue before retracting back into the abominations head.

"The more it eats, the more it grows and mutates. Fascinating. We'll need to build it a lightless pen as well for when it is not active lest we have it sleeping in the sewers and get caught by some young dumb fools. Exposed due to our carelessness is something to avoid for n-"

As if on cue, a peal of uproarious laughter cut through Sai's voice and the dripping of wet sewer walls outside of the alcove they had carved for themselves. Sai reached for the gas knob on his lantern to cut the flame to but a wisp as voices and footsteps scurried passed the entrance to their hideyhole. Sai kept them in the dark until the voices faded and the only thing he could hear was Aamon gnawing on flesh. Turning the lantern's gas supply back up, to half instead of full, Sai was staring at Daisuke as light came back.

"Seems they came to us, this time."

[ThatGuy]

Daisuke watched with interest as “Aamon” continued to mutate. He had no idea how Sai did it. There was clearly a scientific element, but could science alone really accomplish such a feat? Yalda's gifts were truly something to behold. As Sai was interrupted by the sounds of laughter, the young Nara suppressed his urge to laugh. What perfect timing! When the lights came back on, Daisuke was already smiling at his friend.

“I'll go set the table for our new guests. Will Aamon be joining us for dinner?”

Eager to play another one of his games, Daisuke moved quickly, but silently, through the sewers. It was not difficult to track down the source of the laughter, the group did not seem concerned with what might be lurking in the shadows. Peeking over a corner, Daisuke got a good look at his quarry. There were four young adults, two male and two female, wandering the sewers, accompanied by lantern lights. Three of them were laughing, but one started to linger behind the group.

“Maybe this is enough exploring for today. Do we even remember the way back?” It was the taller of the two girls who spoke. From where he was standing, Daisuke could barely make out the short black hair and glasses illuminated by the lantern.

“Of course I do! I know how to read a map, Mei! Besides, Ryuji has been marking our path.” The other woman was a brunette with long hair who held the aforementioned map.

“But it could be dangerous…”

“For the last time, it's probably just a stray dog. Worst case scenario, it's some crazy guy. It's nothing we haven't dealt with before. If you're going to investigate these things with us, you can't keep falling for these ghost stories!”

The third voice belonged to a man even shorter than the brunette. His stiff black bowl cut made it hard for Daisuke to take him seriously. Next to him was a large man with spiked red hair, carrying a club. After getting a better look, he realized that all four of them were armed. It seemed that they were more than a simple group of meddling kids. The three continued further into the sewer, but there was a moment of hesitation from Mei. Capitalizing on this, Daisuke shot his shadow out and bound the girl in place.

“G-guys! I can’t move.”

A loud groan came from the group as they turned back towards their friend. Shaking his head, the short man walked over to the girl.

“We’re not stopping, Mei. If you can’t handle the job, then just head back.”

“No! I seriously ca-”

“I don’t want to hear it. We’re going to keep moving, if you want to head back then follow the markings I left on the walls.”

“We can’t just leave her here.”

“No, I’m nipping this in the bud. She needs to learn how to push through her fear if she’s going to work with us. I’m tired of babysitting.”

The brunette hesitated, but seemed to fear the repercussions of disobeying the short man. Even the most socially unaware person would be able to tell the group dynamics after that interaction. As the group walked further into the sewer, they ignored Mei’s pleas for help. Once the light of their lantern disappeared around the corner, Daisuke silently moved behind the girl and put a hand over her mouth to silence her screams.

“What terrible friends you have. If it helps, you were right to fear these sewers. There are most certainly monsters lurking down here. It’s a shame you won’t get to see them.”

With that, Daisuke broke her neck in one swift motion. As much as he wanted to leave her alive to meet Aamon, he couldn’t risk her alerting her friends. He could likely take on the group, but he didn’t want them scattering and increasing the risk of one getting away. One thing was for sure: no one else in the group would have as easy of a death as Mei did. Extinguishing the lantern that Mei carried, he took it with him as he caught back up to the group. A sense of excitement built in his chest as he noticed them traveling down one of the pathways that he and Sai had created. It did not lead to the lab but instead was one of the shortcuts Daisuke would use to more easily navigate the sewers.

“This isn’t on the map.”

“It could be an old construction project that got abandoned.”

“Or it’s where the monster lives.”

The large man laughed at his own joke. Daisuke wondered how much of a problem he was going to be. There was no doubt a lot of strength backing up his large frame. He’d prefer to leave them for last if possible. With silent footsteps, Daisuke followed them further into the sewers.

[Niro]

Rather than stay behind, Sai set the lantern on the ground as a beacon to guide them back in the darkness before tearing a chunk of flesh from the child's mother and enticing the mutated child with it by holding the meat right under its nose. The still-warm blood of the child's mother ran down his fingers and dripped onto the sewers floor as Sai followed behind Dai quietly and slowly enough for Amon to not lose sight or smell of the cooling flesh in his hand. He came to a stop as Dai did and listened to the group talk amongst themselves with their more scared member. Amon trailed behind them closely and as Dai bound the woman with his shadow, Sai allowed the meat to drop from his hand and into the grubby paws of the aberration at his feet. His stolid demeanor changed little as the beast gnawed at the morsel with its sharpened teeth and the rest of the crew moved deeper into the sewers. Fools.

Dai was swift and merciful with his kill but that didn't mean in death her body would rest peacefully. As the Nara crept after the rest of the crew, Sai and Amon stopped at Mei's body. He watched as the mutate attempted to consume the woman but without her being in a more broken down state it seemed Amon had a difficult time swallowing any part of the woman. The child's attention was solely on attempting to consume her and so Sai left him alone with the corpse while he followed after Dai and the group. They had turned down one of the narrow passage ways the duo had carved through the sewers walls and it would prove their undoing. The passage was cramped and for the larger members of the group they'd have to turn sideways ever so slightly to move through it.

Sai placed a hand on Dai's shoulder and held his hand to his lips hidden behind the blank white mask adorning his face before making a fist to signal Dai to stop here for now. The Toukai placed his hands on the sewer floor and concentrated while closing his eyes. Chakra began to surge from his form as tendrils of flesh and cartilage sloughed themselves free from his forearms and crawled out of his sleeves. The lumps of flesh continued forward through the passage way after the group and began to scale the walls. Their smaller sized allowed them to easily catch up by skirting along the tops of the sides of the walls before dropping onto the other girl of the group. In the darkness, who knew what'd they'd think the mass was. Giving them nay but a moment to react, he activated the follow up portion of his jutsu and the lumps of cartilage and flesh transformed into a rapidly expanding mass of spikes.

Screams of pain erupted from the group and a massive grin came over Sai's face. He wasn't going to stop here; they may be dead or dying but he had more plans for them to be apart of. The spikes of flesh piercing them through and pinning them to the walls began to vibrate with power before once more erupting into another mass of flesh that began to pull their bodies together while fusing them into one disgusting mass of moaning pain filling the entirety of the passageway.

Sai began to giggle from his position behind Dai before the sounds of footsteps behind the pair cut him off. He turned around slowly, his head cocked to the left as he stared into the darkness and from it emerged the form of Mei, her legs brokenly stumbling forward and her head wrongly angled atop her neck. Sai was entirely confused as she stumbled past the two and into the flesh wall where she began to gnaw at it with her teeth. From the back of her neck, a thin tube connected to it and ran back along the length of the sewer. As she swallowed a bite of flesh down, the meat was deposited down the tube and back towards wherever it had came from instead of into the woman's own stomach.

"He adapted." Sai spoke simply, his tone laden with excitement as he began to move back towards where he had left Amon. Upon returning to the room where he had left Amon and Mei, Sai found the child had developed a smaller, secondary mouth similar to a lamprey from which the long tube connected to and was now feeding off of the combined corpse of the group from earlier. "Magnificent. He'll be able to actually hunt by using the dead. I believe we can allow him to explore the city once he grows some more and better develops the ability to puppet."

[ThatGuy]

For a very brief moment, Daisuke found himself disappointed as the tendrils of Toukai flesh shot out towards the group. He had a few different games he was looking forward to playing with them, but as the spikes tore through them and they began to scream, he returned to his usual self. The Nara’s pupils dilated as the group was pulled together and fused into one writhing mass of flesh. Yalda’s gifts always produced such beautiful works of art. Sometimes, he found himself jealous of Sai. He had to go through great lengths to create such an elegant scene, but the Toukai? A flick of the wrist was all it took before moans of pain filled the room like hymns sung in Yalda’s name. But regardless of his feelings, as long as he could see such sights, he would help serve in whatever way he could.

Daisuke turned around in response to the sound of footsteps. Who could that possibly be? His face contorted further in confusion as he noticed the figure of the woman he had disposed of moments earlier shambling towards them. There was no way that she could still be alive. Daisuke may not have been the most skilled shinobi, but he was talented enough to know that there was no way the girl could survive such a wound. He had completely severed multiple vertebrae, and even if he had somehow messed up, Mei had not been breathing when he left her behind. He didn’t believe in ghosts or demons, but the walking dead before him seeded doubt within the Nara.

As the figure closed in, Daisuke could see that this was not a paranormal encounter after all. The thin tube that was connected to the back of her neck revealed that whatever was going on, it had to do with Yalda’s gifts. It wasn’t until Sai spoke that he made the connection to Amon. Following the tube, Daisuke laughed as he saw that it did indeed lead to the mutant child.

”Look how much you’ve grown! And so fast too! Big brother Dai is so proud!” Amon’s cloudy eyes didn’t so much as glance in Daisuke’s direction as it continued to feed. ”I’m curious to see what will change as he continues to feed. He’s gone through such drastic changes in this short amount of time. Will he continue to adapt, or will it hit its peak? He will certainly continue to grow, but will there be any more surprises down the line? Ah, these experiments are finally getting fun.”

Daisuke sang the last sentence like an excited child. Sai was able to make so many different toys that they could use to sow delicious chaos into the world. Amon was just the first of many, and if Daisuke was patient, he’d likely get a chance to make a few monsters of his own. After giving his friend a large smile, the Nara looked back towards the abomination. Oh, the fun they were going to have.

[Niro]

The wet, sloppy crunches of Amon's puppet eating away at whatever remains of its friends filled with sewer as Sai walked around the woman's preserved body and observed the changes Amons influence had on her body. She was totally controlled by Amon at this point; her feet were dragging when she had originally walked in but as Amon gained familiarity with the host she began to walk like normal once again. Sai was almost certain Amon would learn how to replicate the voice of his victims too as he continued to develop his ability.

"At this rate, he'll be ready to be let loose within a week if not two at most. The leaps and bounds he's made within hours is already astounding. Yes, these experiments finally are bearing fruit. I'll take samples of his blood and other fluids before he's released and see if I am more readily able to create more...siblings for Amon. More children of Yalda." Sai was chatty beyond belief compared to his usual self with the results of Amons transformation and aggression. For the first time since he had been first granted an audience with Yalda himself, he felt as if he was truly imbibing in his lords desires. A sense of immense satisfaction and glee spread from his toes to his scalp as he felt a sense of euphoria fill him and a distorted, psychotic smile twisted across his lips hidden beneath his mask.

"We should prepare. First, a pen for him when he isn't hunting. Something for him to call home lest he go make a nest or something similar elsewhere in the city." Sai began to plan for the immediate future. "The sewers are already gathering rumors and I expect them to only grow with the...mysterious disappearance of these fools. More and more will soon find themselves drawn here; we should be ready for whoever finds themselves brave enough to enter Yalda's den." He patted the disgusted, mutated form of the child on the head as he passed it on his way back towards his makeshift laboratory. Between Amon wandering the sewers in search of scraps of garbage, waste, animals, and whatever else washed down its depth and the webs of fleshy spikes courtesy of Sai's spores, the sewers of Socha were slowly becoming a realm filled with nightmares.

[ThatGuy]

They were going to cause quite a stir in Socha. Ghost stories were already starting to appear surrounding the sewer, and Amon was only going to fuel such superstitions. How many more idiots were going to wander into their domain in search of monsters? They’d certainly find a few, but not the ones they would expect. It was a shame that it would inevitably end up drawing the attention of some powerful people down the line. But Amon was only the first of many, and they still had so many games left to play.

“I wonder if he can do that trick with older corpses. I could dig up some poor widower’s wife and let Amon work his magic. It would be so easy to play the idiot’s disappearance as an act of grief. I’d love to see the man’s face as his reunion is interrupted by the rending of flesh.”

A shiver crawled up Daisuke’s spine just thinking about it. What a beautiful scene it would be! He quickly snapped himself out of the fantasy. There was much more work to be done before he could focus on any of that! One had to finish your vegetables before getting dessert, right?

“I’ll get started on making the pen. Food should be easy enough to acquire even if we want to keep it low-profile. If the neighborhood cats start vanishing, then it is more likely they’ll blame wolves rather than monsters in the sewers. I think I’ll teach Amon to navigate the tunnels better as well. It is his hunting ground, after all.”

His instincts about Sai and Yalda were correct. Daisuke knew that if he followed this strange man then he would have more fun than he ever could on his own. Yalda’s gifts were something to behold, and he was eager to spread them across the lands. What horrors would their actions bring upon the world? The anticipation was practically killing him. As he made his way through the tunnel to make Amon’s pen, a large smile grew on Daisuke’s face.

Socha… It’s time to properly welcome your new arrivals.