“Congratulations, OLLIE DEA!     You’ve been found guilty of MURDER!”

Was her voice ever anything other than casual ? Anything other than perfectly carefree ? She sat upon her throne, high above the crowd, looming over them with a smirk which crew colder by the minute. A god playing with an ant hill, and now she finally had a chance to test out her new magnifying glass. 

With an idle wave of a hand, a large red button appeared before her. a small gavel appearing in turn in her hand, with little more than a lazy hit of it ( a love for theatrics this one had indeed ) a gap opened up. 

Hands, human like yet much to thin, much to shadowy and ghostly to be, reached out. They grasped, eagerly clinging onto the MURDERER before then. ( He can’t run, they are fast, much too fast, grabbing onto legs and arms and neck and brutally and unforgivably DRAGGING him back in the abyss where they had emerged from ) the man falls back, a loud CRACK echoing through the courtroom from his head smacking against the concrete floor, his body tugged toward the opened maw a few feet in front of him. ( Into the gap you go, kick and struggle all you want, there is no escaping. ) 

The gap closes. And it was as if the man where never there to begin with. 

A loud yawn is heard, a minute of silence passing by before the lovely mastermind gets up from her seat, and slowly walks down toward the center of the room. She moves with no rush, as if this were a normal occurrence to her, until she stands before the gathered crowd. 

❝ I wonder, have any of you ever been to a factory ? They are very fascinating you know. In particular, there efforts to recycle old material into new is truly to be admired. After all, when a machine is no longer of USE it is our RESPONSIBILITY to reuse it and create something BETTER in it’s place. Here, I’ll show you. Think of this as a field trip ! ❞ 

She snaps her fingers, and once more the room shifts, where before they had stood within a courthouse now was hard ground and closed in walls of earth ( Where were they ? A cave ? Underground ? ) It was like stepping into open oven, an oppressive wave of choking heat suddenly filling up what had only seconds before been cool air. Then came the thunderous roar of countless metal monsters coming to life. Grinding gears, slamming hammers, pumping pistons, and from everything rose a blanket of hot STEAM. ( hotter and hotter still, was it getting harder to breath ? ) 

Another simple snap, and the noise around them seemed to deafen, all focus brought solely back to HER. The thundering around them little more than muffled background noise, the gap youkai’s voice as clear as a bell. ( How was she doing that ? ) 

❝ These machines here are top of the line; a engineering marvel… or so I’m told. But ah.. before these machines can do much of ANYTHING they need proper COMPONENTS to work with. ❞ 

A hand was idly gestured to her left to a much too familiar figure crumpled up on the ground --the murderer ( What ? Did you think he was gone for good ? ) her hand then gestured upwards, and from behind a curtain of steam and shadows suddenly glowed hundreds of watching eyes. 

Slowly they emerged from behind the machines and from holes carved into the cave walls. Hunched creatures, humanoid in appearance, yet clearly anything but. Webbed feet, elongated duck-like bills upon their faces, green skin and turtle shells-- kappa. They were kappa. Countless of them, smug grins on their faces as they expertly maneuvered their way down from the machines around them until they surrounded the man who was only now regaining consciousness from his earlier ‘trip’. Eyes widening as he took in the youkai now surrounding him ( talk about a wake up call. ) 

❝ As you can see, ❞ Yukari continued, ever present smirk only growing on upon her lips as she watched the scene unfolding before her ( before everyone, the entire gathered crowd has little choice BUT to watch. ) ❝ our friend Ollie here has ‘volunteered’ to give us a demonstration of what exactly these machines can do. ❞ 

As if on cue the man shot up to his feet, eyes wide clearly ready to try to make a RUN for it ( what a truly human like android, to be programmed with such fight or flight instincts ) yet the water demons were quick to act, grabbing onto their newly found TOY and violently YANKING him back towards them. One grabbed hold of an arm, and with sickening CRACK broke it as if it was little more than a simple TWIG. 

A scream, pain shooting up the fractured limb of the innocent ( Innocent ? You’re not innocent, not even close ! ) man. The kappa around him only seemed to laugh, talking among themselves as they watched the man struggle in their grasp ( ‘what is this thing, clearly not human, curious how curious…’ ) before grabbing hold of the fractured arm once more and tugging down violently. Claws sunk into flesh, tearing apart fabric and skin as if it was little more than tissue paper. Tearing, tearing, tearing, until muscle and bone was shown and blood coursed out of the newly opened wound. ( ‘It bleeds ! It can bleed !’ ) and just as quickly as the wound was inflicted, the same beasts fixed it back up, flesh being sewn back expertly into its proper place. ( Come now, what fun would it be if he simply BLEED to death ? Did that poor girl not suffer too before her death ? IT'S ONLY FAIR ) 

( ❝ Did you know, kappa were the ones who first introduced medicine to humanity. As you can see, they have quite a knack for fixing the things which they break ❞ ) 

One kappa grabbed onto a long wrench nearby, and quickly swung. SNAP. Hard metal connecting with a knee, and over he fell, body slamming onto the ground. ( The poor girl had a broken ankle when you approached her didn’t she ? Why should you get off any better than her ? ) before another swift WHACK was given to the back of the other knee. ( No crawling away now.. ) 

Another scream, Ollie for a moment struggling to lift up his body from the ground, weight barely supported by his arms ( one more so than the other ). He looks up, and for a second his eyes catch sight of the crowd before him, black hues locking onto to HIS watching gaze before glancing over to meet the DEMON which had trapped them all here in the first place. 

But there was barely a moment to think before a kappa grabbed hold of a arm, webbed foot slamming down upon Ollie’s back for leverage, and with all its weight PULLED. Harder, harder, until it finally gave way ( bodies are only so durable weren’t they ? ) a loud POP, shoulder dislocating from its socket, and yet the demon still wasn’t satisfied. It kept pulling and pulling, until fabric and skin tore and the arm was yanked clean off. 

The kappa lifted the limb up, wicked grin on its face as if it was proud of its achievement. Meanwhile, the man struggled upon the ground beneath it ( blood, so much blood ) but just as before the kappa were quick to heal the wound they had just inflicted on their victim ( So what if he was now missing an arm, at least he was still alive… right ? ) 

The kappa were quick to lift him from the ground ignoring his pointless struggle as one beast took hold of each remaining limb. A useless swing from his remaining arm, a last ditch effort to fight back, quickly stopped by kappa who took hold of it, twisting the wrist ( SNAP ! ) and giving the entire arm a swift PULL. 

                 Pulling, pulling, 

    POP ! 

They made the process of TEARING the man’s limbs OFF one by one into some sort of game. Yet through it all he remained alive ( too easy, dying like this would be too easy for someone like you. ) the pain still shooting up through his system, eyes shut tight from pain ( screams long died out, vocal cords long gone hoarse ) the kappa ( no more than that, YUKARI, life and death was such a simple boundary to manipulate after all ) making SURE he STAYED alive. ( not yet, not yet ) 

From across the room more kappa appeared, pushing forward a large vat from deeper within the factory. Push, push, the metal liquid burning within emitting a blinding light. The kappa got to work, gathering up the dismantled limbs and still alive remains of what had once been Ollie into their arms and CLIMBING upwards, 

Up and up and up, before dropping the limbs one by one into the molten liquid. 

Yet he was still alive. 

As impossible as it seemed he was still alive, eyes opening once more at the feeling of being lifted higher from the ground and scanning the ‘audience’ one last time before the kappa unceremoniously threw the rest of him into the metal pool. 

The vat was pushed forward more, before being tipped over into a nearby machine ( and one can so CLEARLY catch a glimpse, a mix metal and half melted flesh ) it roared to life with renewed vigor and minutes later the sound of a whistle blew. 

Suddenly, as if by magic, the machine produced a antique radio from within its depths. 

It was over. 

What had before been a sentient being had been dismantled and reassembled into little more than a simple machine. 

There was a clapping from the warden herself, a word of thanks given to the water demons before her for allowing them to come and visit their factory, before the kappa took a swift bow and went back to work elsewhere. The room shifted once more, crowd ( and radio, now set to playing a much too cheerful tune ) teleported back into the village square ( courthouse now vanished in the process ).

     STAGE ONE ; IT FOLLOWED ME HOME

                        CLEARED !!!