Spin-off: Four Demonly Kings
Part 2 of: Colour Swap arc
Crisis befalls the Four Demonly Kings, and they seek the counsel of an eccentric Medical scientist.
Heavy Rain is the property of Quantic Dream and Sony Computer Entertainment. The minis Gordy, Hasan and riza were first written by Herr Wozzeck, based on misspellings by ps1fan26.
The Four Demonly Kings' first day working at the maid café ended in disaster beyond their imagination.
An unconscious Kaguya was carried back to RC 381 by his friends, and unconscious he stayed for the remainder of the day. That however was not what made this incident a disaster.
"U-RA-CHAAAN! What is the meaning of this!?" The next day's morning, RC 🤘 and RC 381 quaked from the roaring of a certain petite Demonly King. "You put something into my soda, didn't you? If it wasn't you, then who else? What did you do? Tell me right now, or…"
Urato initially was in no mood to defend himself; he was visibly cracking up. Inasuke did not look like himself – his wavy, shoulder-length hair was a great deal darker, appearing outright black rather than the usual brown, and his eyes were pink instead of blue. "Pfft, look at ya. What happened?" Urato said. "Didja decide to have an image change or sumthin'?"
"Stop joking! Look, even my minis have their hair and eye colours changed!" Inasuke yelled, pointing at his little companions. Indeed, Booky now sported purple eyes and pale blond hair fading to lavender, while Vill's eyes and hair were a great deal blacker and more pixelated. "Why do you think I'd do such a thing to them?"
"Whydya think I did it then? Do ya think I wanna have dis stupid hair colour?" Urato said, pointing at his own head. Indeed, his spiky hair had turned pinkish white, and his eyes had turned black. "I woke up like dis. Dunno how dis happened either."
Right then, someone barged into the room – Momoka. "Help me, please! Kaguya-sama is in trouble!" she cried desperately. "He refuses to get out of the blanket closet no matter what. Please, you need to help me get him out! He could die in there!"
Urato and Inasuke failed to respond from shock: Momoka's hair was now brown and her eyes green.
Then came a noise from Inasuke's room. The three rushed into the pretty pink quarters to find an astonishing sight: atop the stack of hand-sewn stuffed animals, there lay Kaguya. Once he saw his three friends, he tried to bury himself in the pile, crying, "Don't look at me!"
His long hair had turned bright red, and his eyes were blue.
"Of all the hair colours I must have, why does it have to be yours?" Kaguya said to Urato. "Not only that, red hair is the hardest hair colour to coordinate with; my entire wardrobe and makeup collection have pretty much been rendered useless!"
"C'mon, ya look kinda like Ariel. What more dya want?" Urato retorted. "Ya get tah look real hot though, unlike me who got dese lame colours!"
"Don't insult Kaguya-sama's eye colour!" Momoka protested. Inasuke meanwhile was quietly seething; he was bearing Kaguya's hair colour and Kaguya in turn had his eye colour, though at least he had Momoka's pink eyes.
The four had figured out that their colouring were not merely changed – they, including Inasuke's minis, had swapped their colours. This knowledge provided little solace, if any. "This is no time to argue," Momoka said. "We need to find out how this happened and how to change back. Does anyone have any clue?"
"Right, Hazama-sempai fainted in the maid café yesterday," Inasuke said. "I think it might have something to do with that."
Instantly, Kaguya had the other three's eyes on him. He seemed deep in thought for a moment, then suddenly gasped. "Must be the beauty treatment pill," he said. "Oshimo-san. She gave me the pill. We need to find her."
Four Demonly Kings colour swap chart; minis not included
Manazuru Shimo (真鶴霜), commonly known as Oshimo (お霜), was a scientist in the Medical Research Division, she was a tengu, and she had adopted three Heavy Rain-verse minis. Those were the only pieces of personal information her colleagues knew about her; she was a painfully secretive creature. Outside of her RC-lab, she always wore a dark, opaque raincoat with the hood up, her face was always behind a tengu mask, and her wings were always wrapped in black plastic casings. She was never seen flying, and no one knew what her face or her hair looked like.
This made the Four Demonly Kings' search for her a little more difficult. No one knew where her RC was, or remembered what number it was assigned. After the four plus the minis had thoroughly tired their legs in the stark white corridors of MRD, they came upon a strange door at a secluded dead-end.
Not an inch of the door's original material was seen; it was utterly covered with overlapping onmyōdō talismans. The four tried knocking on the door only to find that they couldn't approach it – there was seemingly an invisible, impenetrable wall between them and the door. Then…
"Are you looking for me?"
The four turned around to face the source of the voice. There stood a masked, winged woman in a raincoat, accompanied by three floating origami figures.
Oshimo without overgarments, alongside her shikigami-minis Gordy, Hasan and riza
Oshimo was not a being to trifle with, as the agents soon found out. In addition to being a scientist, she was also an onmyōji with a trove of magical techniques under her belt. The invisible wall outside her door was a kekkai barrier she usually erected to keep out visitors, and equipment she kept in her RC-lab was similarly protected. Booky found this out the hard way when it tried to touch a centrifuge on a shelf; the protection spell sent a current of energy that caused its then-smooth blond hair to frizz until it resembled sheep fleece.
The group was welcomed warmly. In a flash, two of Oshimo's shikigami-minis, Gordy and Hasan, wheeled out six chairs with comfortably soft lining, while the third riza brought out six lab coats (and watched in silent amusement as Booky and Vill struggled to put the human-sized coats on). The mistress of the RC then came to greet her guests mere seconds later – and caught them by surprise.
Oshimo in her lab was far different from her in HQ corridors. Raincoat and wing casings nowhere in sight, she was now boasting a white lab coat and white feathered wings with just a touch of black at the tips. This coupled with her short dark hair with a single tuft of red, there was no doubt she was a crane-based tengu, seemingly exuding an aura even more obnoxiously white than the corridors of MRD.
But even then, her face remained behind a red, long-nosed tengu mask.
"I generally don't allow guests into my RC unless it's something of dire importance," she said coldly. "Be quick. I don't tolerate contaminants in my lab for longer than fifteen minutes."
"Oh, ya did dis tah us n' ya still stand dere actin' all smug!" Urato started immediately. "Ya better do sumthin' 'bouddit, or…"
Momoka elbowed his side before he could continue. "Oshimo-san, I believe you met him yesterday in the maid café," she said, pointing at Kaguya. "He said you gave him a pill. I would like to ask what pill it is, and whether its effects can be reversed."
Oshimo stared at Kaguya, then said, "Strange, I remember giving the pill to a black-haired fellow."
No answer came. She stared at the group for another moment, then said, "Oh."
"Yes, the Cotton Rose Pill (芙蓉丸). A beauty treatment I'm in the process of developing," Oshimo explained. "The inspiration came from the cotton rose blossom: blooming white in the morning, turning red as night approaches. The pill is meant to add a touch of colour, so to speak; anyone who ingests the pill will turn from pure and clear to alluring and enticing."
"'Add a toucha colour' my foot! Lookit us! It swapped our colours!" Urato yelled. "How on earth did dis happen? Wasn't Guyatchi da only one takin' da pill?"
"Some of my spiritual energy went into creating it," Oshimo continued. "The energy might have spread out from him, affecting anyone in his vicinity."
"If its effect is that drastic, why did you give it out?" Inasuke asked. "The pill is still under development, isn't it? Why would you give it away when you don't even know what it really does yet?"
His minis jumped up and down in agreement.
"It's a token of gratitude to him for his maid café services, and I had no better gift. What else could I have done? I'm a crane, making sure every favour is repaid is hard-coded into my genes," Oshimo said. "Besides, isn't he also to blame? I only gave it to him, I didn't explicitly tell him to take it!"
At this, Kaguya joined in. "You know, she's right. This is largely my fault. I should have known better than to take unknown medication just because I wanted to beat Tomiyama. I've caused trouble for everyone again."
"Alright, this is getting us nowhere!" Momoka said, bolting up from her seat. "We're here to find a cure, not to blame each other! Oshimo-san, do you…"
But before she could finish, the agents plus the minis found themselves with paper talismans on their faces and invisible restraints around their bodies. "I did tell you I don't want contaminants overstaying in my lab, didn't I?" Oshimo said. She then took a scroll out of her coat, which she tossed at Urato for him to catch in his mouth. "Here's a list of ingredients for an antidote, which can be found in any Word World. Now will you excuse me, I have a lot of work to do."
The group was promptly kicked out of the lab.
