The darkened interior of a small room was allowed a quantity of brightness as faint sunlight filtered in through the curtains. It casted a dim glow on the bed where an older man, Kaito Ran's father, layed with labored breathing. His face gaunt, his eyes hollow.
Sitting beside him was Ran, an eleven-year-old boy, his hands tightly gripping his father's weakened hand.
Ran was completely arrested by his lamenting thoughts. 'I don't understand…why is this happening to me? I'm just a boy."
His eyes were red from tears, he bit his lip and tears rolled down his cheeks and over his lips as he tried to suppress the sobs in an effort to hide any sign of weakness in the presence of his father.
"Please… don't leave me," Ran begged, his shoulders heaving as he shook.
His father, barely able to speak, managed to muster a faint smile for his beloved son.
"Ran… you have to be strong…" His words were soft, trembling. "Even when I'm not here….especially then."
The room became eerily still. The only sound was the irregular beeping of the heart monitor, which had begun slowing down.
Ran clutched his father tighter in his grip. His mind whirling in shock as his father's hand went limp, and the heart monitor emitted a flat, continuous tone. He stared in disbelief.
The world around him seemed to fade away.
"No," he whispered, his thoughts enshrouded in sorrow. "It can't end like this…it's not supposed to end like this!"
It wasn't even supposed to end, was it?
He was overcome by a downpour of sorrow and could not have kept the tears back even if he'd tried.
He clutched tightly to his father's hands, unable to look away, his teary gaze locked on the lifeless ones of his father.
The life had left his eyes, now he looked on indifferently into the nothingness.
Death had come, and death was gone, and all death left was sorrow, taking joy away with it.
His body shook terribly and his breath hitched up severally as he didn't even try to calm the roaring storm of sorrow inside him.
How did this happen? Why was it happening to him? Why him?!
A short while went by where he just squeezed his father's hand and submitted himself to depression. That state of atmosphere was broken when he heard a rustling sound behind him.
He turned his head, his vision blurry. Standing in the dim light, towering above him, was a tall figure, draped in dark robes that seemed to flicker in the shadows.
A djinn, he thought in apparent shock.
Its features were hidden beneath a hood, yet its glowing eyes pierced through the darkness. A hollow, resonating, ear piercing sound echoed softly across the room. It made his teary eyes even more watery. His head felt like he was being overcome by a heatwave, like he was having a heat flash. And his ears felt clogged, as though water had gotten into the canal.
All from the sound of the voice of this being.
The words had been said so fast, yet were so searing that though no mortal hearing would have been quick enough to pick up on what was said in real-time, they still branded themselves into one's memory.
It took him a second to consider what it was his memory had told him had been said, but he hadn't held, though had felt.
He did not know words had feelings until today.
But that was not the concern at the moment.
His body tensed as he recollected what words had been spoken by the djinn.
"It is time."
He opened his mouth to speak, to tell it anything. Even order it to go away. But before any word could be uttered by him, the djinn's clawed hand stretched out and an ethereal chain appeared, linking the entity to his father's soul.
His father's soul was now standing in a spectral form above his body. His father seemed confused, still weak, looking between Ran and the djinn.
"Ran...? What... what is happening?" His father stuttered inquisitively.
"Your soul belongs to Naraku," the djinn spoke again and Ran flinched. He noted that his father didn't seem to be affected by the feeling of the entity's voice.
"It is time to fulfill the pact."
Ran jumped up from his seat, ignoring how woolly his head felt from hearing this thing speak.
He moved to stand between the djinn and his father's soul, his fists clenched—his small body shaking with fury and fear.
"No! You can't take him! He doesn't belong in hell!"
The djinn's expression didn't change, its voice stayed cold and detached. "All souls shall bear their sins, child. Your father is bound to Naraku. This is the natural order."
"I don't care about your order! My father doesn't deserve this!" He screamed in defiance and pleaded in one tone.
The djinn raised its hand, the chain pulling tighter around Ran's father's soul. A portal to Naraku began to form behind the djinn, causing space to wobble and tear as it opened, swirling with crimson flames and shadows.
The air grew heavy, the temperature rising as the gateway to hell revealed itself.
"Fate is not something you can defy, boy."
Ran's face was filled with desperation. He looked towards the portal and glimpsed the world beyond it. It was not what he expected.
He saw vast landscapes, towering black cities, and swirling magic. Giant, otherworldly creatures wandered through the streets, and in the distance, nine great towers rose into the blood-red sky.
His eyes widened in shock and horror, but there was also a flicker of something else… determination.
Is that… Hell? He thought, perplexed. It's real… it's a place…
The chain tightened and Ran's father was pulled by an extra-planar force, heading toward the portal. His ghostly hand reached out toward his son, a silent plea in his eyes.
"Ran… I'm sorry" his father breathed out in a ghostly whisper.
Ran's fists clenched tighter, his voice now a scream.
"I'll save you! I'll come for you, I swear!"
The portal closed with a loud crack, the djinn disappeared along with it. The room was sucked into silence again, save for the distant sound of wind rushing through the curtains.
Ran was left alone, his father's lifeless body in the bed behind him. Tears streamed down his face, but his eyes were fierce.
His thoughts went on a tangent of panic as the situation wrestled with his disbelief.
He's not gone. He's still there… in that place. That place I saw… I can go there… I will go there.
Ran stepped out of the room, into the hallway, his mind racing. His gaze was distant, but his resolve had hardened.
I don't know how… but I will go to Naraku. I will bring him back, he vowed privately, his thoughts becoming resolute as he firmed up his determination.
No matter what.
Ran was standing in the hallway, alone, small against the vast world he'd just glimpsed. Above him, in the shadows, the faint outline of the nine towers loomed as a haunting memory, a reminder of the journey ahead.
A journey into the abyss begins.