That Stupid Toy [Spirit Hunt/Solo]

Daydreaming...

It wasn't uncommon for Ria to be lost in her own thoughts while traveling Shibuya after school. Though making small steps in becoming more sociable, they were still just that; small steps. The only friends she still held lived in other cities, and were thought of as heavens compared to this place. Everyone else wanted to come to Tokyo and see Shibuya, they said. She couldn't understand; this place was one where you could feel alone in a crowd. More than that, it held nothing but bad memories for Ria.

Except this particular part of town where the subway docked. "End of the line? What line is this?" the girl wondered, stepping off the eerily empty subway cart into unfamiliar streets. She turned around to look at the subway, but it was already leaving. Unlike the other stations, there was no clear name posted anywhere. In fact this didn't look like any other station at all; it felt like more a regular train station. They weren't even underground. How did that happen?

She reached into her pocket to retrieve her phone, but instead found something else. It was unusually bulky compared to her phone, and the screen was way too small for anything but a smartwatch. It kind of looked like a toy. "The colours aren't bad. Oh god, I didn't accidentally steal this, did I?!"

Suddenly feeling sweaty at the thought, she hurriedly slipped the toy back into her pocket after a failed first try and took hurried steps towards a nearby alley.

"I couldn't have stolen this. I don't-I'm not that person anymore. And even if I was I'd remember. But someone couldn't drop this in my pocket. Unless they swiped my phone and replaced it with this?!"

Emptying her pockets, Ria was relieved to find her phone and wallet still on her person. At least one crisis had been averted. Leaning against the alley wall, she opened up her phone with the intent of looking up what this toy even was. As she glanced up from her phone at the unfamiliar city block, she noticed a kid in some strange blue and white coat picking up a disc in a shop window and making a swift exit. Ria may or may not have stolen this toy, but that kid was clearly stealing something!

"Kid, stop! Thief!" she shouted, almost jumping out of the alleys with an exaggerated point at the child. He didn't even turn to look back before running in the opposite direction. Ah shit, this was bad. If a kid could get away with stealing, he'd only become more and more bold in time. Which means he'd be a more dangerous criminal. He had to be stopped now.

Before she knew it, Ria was running after the child. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do when she caught him. Give him a stern lecture before handing him over to the police? Probably. Though she'd probably be charged for assault if she tried to physically restrain him. The best thing to do was to keep him in sight and try to flag down a nearby police officer. If there was one thing Shibuya was good at, it was having a strong police force.

Now Ria wasn't exactly the best runner, or even the most physically fit. But she could be surprisingly fast when she wanted to be, and she had longer legs than this kid to help close the gap. They continued down unfamiliar side streets without passing a single police officer. Actually there were a lot of strangely dressed people around here. Was there some kind of Halloween event going on?

"Maybe I can scare him to stop"

Ria swiped a pebble up from the sidewalk and came to a stop. She wound her arm behind head and threw the stone with the aim to have it hit right in front of him as a surprise. She was a pretty decent shot.

"Ow!"

But not that decent. She stopped the thief, all right. The kid had run right in the path of the stone and been knocked on the head.

"Shit shit shit, I assaulted a minor! They're gonna arrest me, mom and dad are going to be so mad. Oh god."

The unusually dressed child turned around with clear anger in his eyes. And...sharp teeth. And a snout? Was that some sort of mask?

...no, that was no mask. As the child's full front profile came into view, it became clear this was not a "child" at all. This was some sort of horned-bear monster. And just like that, Ria realized that all the people in strange costumes she passed weren't in costumes either, but also some sort of monster.

Alright, so this was all just a daydream. A very involved, very stressful daydream. She wasn't exactly sure what could have caused this since she didn't really watch horror movies or anything else with monsters, but that had to be the case. It's not like monsters could be real.

"Blue Blaster"

Suddenly she felt a rush of heat coming towards her as the bear-monster spit something up. It looked like...fire?! In an effort to dodge, Ria tossed herself to the ground as the blast of fire sailed past her. Her skin felt as if she had lingered too close to a hot stove. This felt far too real for a daydream, absurd as it was. Understanding she was in real danger, Ria instead turned to run away. She wanted to stop this kid, sure. And she was still going to. But there was no way she'd be able to do anything herself. At this point, she needed to find a police officer and hope they were better equipped for dealing with monsters. Maybe there were police among these monsters too?

The steps she was once chasing were now fast approaching behind her as Ria scrambled to pick herself off the ground. Instinctively she ducked into another set of alleys in an effort to lose her pursuer.

As if angry at being ignored, however, the toy from earlier began to glow brightly through her pocket and give away her position. "Now you do something?! Is this my punishment for stealing you?" she shouted at the toy after taking it from her pocket. A beam of light shot out deeper into the alley. Her mind told her to toss it, but her body hesitated. There was something almost familiar about this light. It felt...right. For whatever reason, she followed the light well aware that it was making her easier to track. The light bent around corners, causing her to tumble further into the back streets. These places were far too dangerous; Ria had firsthand experience. It didn't help that she was somehow in another city now either. This light was perhaps all she had to ensure her survival.

The light ended at a worn down wall seemingly like any other. A hole was present where the light shone, but nothing seemed to be inside. Taking a deep breath, Ria slowly reached into the hole. Her fingers traced something as she saw the bear-monster appear in the corner of her eyes. And then...a bright light completely obscured her vision.

If she was dead, that was surprisingly painless. At least the light meant she was a good person in the end, right?

Maybe that was premature to say. The light faded and was replaced with a darkness that held a tinge of purple. That seemed more accurate to where she would end up after death. Looks like stealing this toy was the last straw before reality decided she had to go.

Resigning herself to her perceived state of damnation, she almost didn't notice when she lost the feelings in her legs. Or maybe she thought that was simply part of the process. What she found a little more unusual was a change in the sensation of her skin. Not one of burning like she predicted, but an extreme dryness. Soon the feeling covered her face and the rest of her body as well.

And then the darkness started to fade. The broken alley wall appeared in her vision again, as did the bear-monster. It seemed to be in a daze sitting on the ground a few steps away.

"I'm not dead?"

Her voice sounded off, but she was still able to speak. The world around her seemed to have grown a little, and she still couldn't herself touching the ground. Looking down at her hands, she instead found white claws. Actually "looking down" wasn't even right, since her neck did not appear to move the same at all. And she could move something in her lower body, but not legs.

Oh god, it was a tail! She was some sort of monster! Panicking, she twisted around with sickening ease and saw her body had been replaced with some sort of flying snake creature. Her stomach felt sick as she felt vomit coming on. She had no time for that, however, as the bear-monster got on it's feet.

"I don't care if you're a stupid Spirit User, don't get in my way!"

It spit more blue fire her way, but the heat felt far less intense. Ria maneuvered her new snake body with relative ease around it. This body felt stronger despite the smaller size. She also felt vague memories in her mind, the name "EcKudamon" being chief among them. Perhaps that was this form's name? She also felt further hidden powers called Spheres. She didn't have blue flames, but she did have her own powers.

But Ria wasn't a fighter. EcKudamon be damned, she turned away and ran from the bear once again without a light to give away her position. Okay, she still had to get this monster to a police officer. She re-entered the main streets into an unfortunately sparse area. Maybe she needed to make better use of these Spheres.

A dull yellow sphere materialized in her palm with some concentration. It felt sick to imagine she had just created matter, but she'd think about that later. She threw the sphere with surprising force towards the bear. As it hit the ground, a cloud of black smoke rose up and earned a few coughs from her pursuer. She used the cover to shift her position. She could easily escape at this point, but her new abilities gave her an idea. A new sphere appeared in red. This time she took more careful aim; she need to throw it precisely through the black smoke. Hesitating a few seconds, she launched the sphere high into the smoke and heard if rebound off the alley wall behind the monster.

"Close enough"

Suddenly loud police sirens blared where the sphere had landed. The beat monster came running out, looking behind him for incoming officers. With the addition of her distraction and the remaining smoke, Ria shot forward in her snake form and deftly swiped the stolen disc from the bear's hands. She contemplated going in for an attack, but was still afraid of being charged for assault. Instead she continued to run from the likely confused bear.

It was still nearly a minute later when she found a police officer. Or what she thought was a police officer. It had the uniform, and was vaguely humanoid, but also very clearly a octopus monster.

"Officer!" she called, stopping in front of him to see if she'd get a reaction.

"Yes, what's wrong little girl?"

Little girl? "I saw this bear monster steal this disc. He tried to attack me...I mean I guess I attacked him first! I didn't mean to hurt him, and I don't think I did! But you need to go arrest him."

The octopus monster seemed doubtful, but started to follow her anyways. As she rushed back to where she had left the creature, the smoke had completely cleared. And the bear was long gone.

"You shouldn't waste an officer's time." the octopus grumbled, snatching the disc from Ria's hands with one of his tentacle arms, "I'll take this as evidence, but if you stole this and are trying to trick me you'll regret it."

"What? No, of course not! He must have run away."

"Then you didn't beat him well enough, if your story is true. Don't let me catch you mixed up in this again, okay?"

With that, the officer left the stammering Ria alone again. Her adrenaline gone, her body finally allowed her to release her vomit on the side of the road.

"That stupid toy caused all of this...what did I get roped into?"