r/Erma • u/Aggressive_Eye_8005 • 43m ago
Season of Love. Halloween Special (Part 8) Finale
(Fanfic based on the webcomic «Erma»)
At the same time
Sam quietly sat in the ramen shop, lazily snacking at the counter. As he ate, his mind was wrapped up in the concept for his new book. It was to be dedicated to the festival of love, and he had even come up with a working title—“Season of Love.”
His thoughts were interrupted by an approaching oni.
“Excuse me, have you by any chance seen a warrior in armor around here?” the stranger asked.
Sam looked up:
“Well, I definitely saw a warrior.”
“Really? Where?” the oni brightened.
“About fifteen minutes ago, when I was leaving the sauna’s changing room. He was just coming in then.”
“Thank you so much!”
The oni spun on his heel and ran off at full speed toward his friend.
Five minutes later
Bursting into the sauna to find his companion, the oni entered the changing room and immediately caught sight of heavy armor.
“Okay, if the armor’s here, then he’s nearby. That’s good,” the young man muttered.
He left the changing room and headed for the steam room. But as he got closer, he realized the massive door was locked tight from the inside.
“Bro, are you in there? Are you alright?” the oni shouted loudly.
In response, a frantic, deafening pounding came from the door. The oni immediately assumed his friend was in trouble and needed urgent help.
“Bro, I’m coming! Just step away from the door!” he commanded.
Focusing all his strength, the oni smashed the thick oak door open with a powerful elbow strike. He crashed inside from the momentum and accidentally fell onto someone in the thick steam. Quickly raising his head to locate his friend, he instead saw a small oni by the door, covered head to toe in purple lipstick marks.
“Dude, save yourself!” Kimoto squealed in terror and bolted out of the sauna like a bullet.
The oni was utterly confused, then looked down at who he had landed on. It was Yori, whose chilling, murderous glare clearly said: “You’re done for.”
Kimoto sped through the underground market toward the ramen shop. Within a minute, the familiar sign appeared ahead, and Sam was sitting there calmly, unaware.
Noticing his friend, Kimoto shouted while running:
“Sam, run!”
Sam turned around, looking deeply puzzled. Kimoto grabbed his arm with a death grip and yanked him abruptly toward the exit.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?!” Sam exclaimed, nearly dropping his glasses.
“I’m saving our lives!” Kimoto barked.
At that very moment, a wave of furious women poured in from the cave’s main entrance. Sam and Kimoto instantly realized the full scale of the looming terror. Without a word, they took off running as fast as they could.
“What do we do?!” Sam gasped, struggling to breathe while running.
“We have to get out of here—fast!”
“Where?! The main exit is probably already blocked!”
“There’s a backup route—straight to the normal world!”
“Wait, what?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” Sam was shocked.
“Not important now. The key is to reach it! We need to make it to the freight elevator and go down!”
Before heading to the lower level, Kimoto and Sam quickly dashed into the tavern, jumped over the railing, grabbed their belongings, and sprinted onward. Turning into a dark corridor, they emerged at a deep shaft where a wooden elevator platform swayed. The fugitives leapt onto the platform like fish.
Kimoto gripped a rusty lever hard and pulled it toward himself. At that moment, from the catacombs’ darkness came Yori’s angry, thunderous scream:
“Kimoto-oo!!!”
The general panicked, fiercely yanking at the stuck mechanism:
“Come on, damn thing, come on!”
The cables screeched as they tightened, and the elevator suddenly plunged downward in free fall. As the platform hurtled into the abyss at breakneck speed, Sam and Kimoto barely held back terrified screams. Finally, the elevator slowed gently, stopping at the lowest level, and the two men exploded off it like cannonballs.
“Follow me!” Kimoto shouted.
They ran through damp catacombs of the abandoned mine toward an ancient portal. As they rushed through the echoing tunnels, they both started to feel footsteps chasing them and imagined their pursuers were about to grab them by the collar.
When it seemed their capture was only seconds away, they burst into a spacious stone chamber. In the center stood a massive portal arch, still inactive.
“Alright, Sam, I’m activating it now, then we jump!”
Kimoto hurried to the altar slab and feverishly whispered an ancient spell. Finishing the chant, he spun toward Sam, grabbed a pouch from the table, and sprinkled the friend with white magical sand meant for safe transport to the human world. The arch behind Kimoto hummed, glowing with blinding light. Sam braced himself to jump.
“Great, Kimoto! Now it’s your turn—sprinkle yourself!” Sam urged.
Instead, Kimoto gave him a long look, swung his arm forcefully, and flung the pouch with the remaining sand into the bottomless mine shaft.
“It’s not just the two of us who need saving, Sam,” the general said firmly. “I’ll hold them off.”
“Wait, don’t you dare! No!” Sam yelled, trying to grab his friend.
“Goodbye, Sam.”
The magical wave swept Sam up, pulling him into the portal’s shining vortex. Space folded, and the writer tumbled onto the soft grass of a night forest in the earthly world.
Sam struggled to rise, looked around, and quietly, bitterly whispered into the void:
“Farewell, General…”
He adjusted his backpack and slowly made his way through the thicket toward the nearest town, hoping to disappear among the people.
Night fell.
Sam sat on the edge of a bed in a cheap hotel room, carefully jotting down what might be his very last thoughts in a battered journal:
“Update: today brought tragedy. Our hideout was discovered and attacked by the women. I have no idea how they found us—maybe they tracked our path, but I’m not sure. Thankfully, Kimoto saved me, but at the cost of himself. Now I’m completely alone. I’m hiding in a small hotel in a remote Japanese village. Honestly, I’m lost. I’m certain she’ll find me, so there’s no point running anymore. This is my last entry this month. Tomorrow I’ll try to come up with something, if I can...”
With a heavy sigh, Sam closed the book and wearily sank onto the pillow. To distract himself from dark thoughts, he turned on the TV, where vibrant Japanese variety shows flashed across the screen. After a couple of hours, the exhausted writer finally fell asleep.
While he slept, the TV screen suddenly flickered and switched to a static hiss of white noise.
Thirty minutes passed.
Sam began to slowly wake to a strange, sticky feeling of someone else’s presence. He barely opened his eyes, looked around, and instantly realized: “That’s it. This is the end.”
Sam was firmly tied to Emiko’s bed. From the corridors of the vast family mansion came eerie, ecstatic women’s cries of love.
At that moment, the bedroom lights snapped off completely. The glass balcony doors silently swung open, and Emiko stepped in from the darkness of night. She slowly approached her sprawled husband on the bed. With a quiet metallic scrape, long, sharp claws extended from her fingers, instantly shredding his clothes to tatters.
Leaping onto the bed, Emiko straddled Sam and leaned close to his face:
“You’ve really upset me, Sam. I’m extremely displeased with you,” she whispered smoothly, her eyes gleaming predatory. “But that’s alright... We have a whole month ahead, and you’ll have plenty of time to make amends. I assure you, dear, now I’ll personally make sure you don’t run anywhere. You’ll be with me every second. I hope that’s clear?”
“Yes, ma’am...” Sam barely managed to choke out, swallowing hard.
“Good boy,” Emiko purred contentedly. “By the way, tomorrow we celebrate Aoi and Kentaro’s wedding—that’s just wonderful! So we need to turn in early. But since we still have some time...”
Emiko spread a terrifying, shark-like smile:
“Let’s make good use of it.”
With that, she leaned even closer, and Sam's long ordeal of twisted, relentless passion began.
THE END