A different world means a new bond (Cherry and Kogami summer event)

"Don't worry. Your daughter is stable now and is perfectly safe. All she needs right now is some bedrest, you can come vist her tomorrow." The voice of the young doctor could be heard through the hospital door. stirring the young girl awake. The first thing she did upon waking up was to look at her left arm. The girl's head was a foggy, throbbing, mess and she couldn't remember much. But she did recall that her left arm was damaged in........ Whatever accident that sent her here. "Oh my god!" The young girl gasped in suprise, her voice a little raspy and broken. Her left arm was still in tact, but just barely. It looked like it was stitched up. Not only that but it felt different aswell. It felt, heavy, filled up almost. It was a odd feeling that made the girl's skin crawl. But she tired to pudh past that at the moment, and instead Cherry tried to focus on clearing the fog from her mind. And remember what all happened to her.

As she closed her eyes and tried her hardest to recall, small bits and pieces came flowing back. It started normal enough. She was walking home from school, before a car rammed into her. Which was the reason why she was currently in a hospital, but that wasn't the only thing the ten year old remembered. Oh no. She could recall the men in said car calmly stepping out of their vehicle and bringing her inside. Both because of hoe much pain she was in and the fact that they blindfolded her, she didn't really know where they brought her but she knew that they brought her to some sort of lab. She also picked up a few of the things the men and doctors said during her short time there. Stuff about how they where going to 'break new grounds.' Theories that 'her damage body may make it easier for him to take control.' And 'that they where going to let the pair roam for a little bit and see what they do.' None of these things gave Cherry any clue to what actually happened at the lab, but she knew it wasn't good. The girl wanted to call for a nurse, so she could tell her story. But her voice was too broken for her to yell and she couldn't find the 'call nurse' button. So for the time being she was forced to stay in bed. Thinking about the unsettling chain of events that befell her a few days ago.

While Cherry was thinking up theories of what happened to her. The truth of what really happen was far more worrying and serious then anything she could come up with. Really the people who had hit her with their car where doctors, tasked with finding a host for one Kogami Shibuya. And they seem to have gotten luckly, finding a young cousin of his. The girl had a hard life ahead of her because of this. Being the first of her kind would come with many problems, even more so since she the people who perform the bonding seemed to have no problem going so far as to run a girl over to harm her enough and bring her into the lab. Even though there was surely many other ways they could have gotten her in there more 'peaceful.' However the biggedt question right now was this.

When would Kogami wake back up, and how would he react to the new state he was in........?

The horrible death that he experienced only left Kogami with anger and hate. He found himself stuck in a bad decision with no way out, and he cursed them all. He vowed revenge in his heart and no matter what they could do to his soul, his personality and existence would still linger. It wasn't something you could easily extinguish, Kogami's resiliency was that of a cockroach.

"The... The fu-..."

Waking up in a bewildered gaze, Kogami found himself inside of someone. He could feel that to be the case since he sensed another active soul where he was. However, he couldn't do anything at first. For now, he was weak and couldn't assume control. The fact that he was able to survive the transference process when they attempted to purge his soul took all it did out of him, he wanted to remember, he wanted to remain who he was.

"This is what I've been reduced to? Where am I?!!!"

At this point, cherry could hear him. But much to her surprise, Kogmai would be able to materialize just a little bit as an ectoplasmic green snake, wrapped around Cherry's arm. From cherry's point of view, it would look like some sort of mystical python that was looking around the hospital room.

"Why the heck am I in the hospital?"

"H-huh?" Cherry softly uttered out, a strange male voice ringing in her ear out of seemingly nowhere.  If that wasn't strange enough she would soon find something odd happening in her left arm, something very, very odd. It was like something was moving inside of it! And before she could even try to think of logical reasons for this strange feeling, she'd feel something forcing it's way out of her arm. The girl shot upright as fast as she could, which wasn't all that impressive since she was not only still quite weak, but also has many tubes and medical equipment hooked up to her.

Turning her head to take another look at her wounded limb, the girl's face would twist into one of pure terror. "Ahhh!" Her 'scream' came out more like a soft gasp, as her eyes focused on the weird, mysterious serpent that had coiled itself around her arm. And could not only talk, but was looking around the room in confusion. "W-who are you? How d-did you get h-h-here? Get off o- O-out of m- Go away!" The ten year demanded of the snake, before she tired to weekly smack it with her right palm. Mostly out of pure instinct, rather then a actual plan to get it away from her. "N-nurse! Nurse! Mom! Da- COUGH COUGH COUGH Despite her best efforts, in this state she could not force herself to scream for help. Only weak sqeaks escaping her lips, until she finally pushed herself to far and went into a intense coughing fit.

Looking at his body, he realized that he was a snake. At the same time, he wasn't surprised, using his snake-like abilities was the whole thing that worked out for him. That was the source of power in correlation to his alias. Back then, he was also called Asura, the snake of hatred. But that was all in the past now.

"I'm flickering!!!! Hey, stop that! Stop coughing. "

It seemed as if his life was currently tied to Cherry's so her current condition affected him as well. It could also be the reason why he could only appear to others like a snake and nothing more. With Kogami's omnidirectional hearing, he listened out for anyone else coming inside of the room and would begrudgingly return to the arm if he had to. But first, he had tried to calm Cherry down.

used

Spoiler:

"Hey hey.... ahh... let's be cool. I'm a friendly snake, a talking friendly snake that just so happens to be living in your arm. This is just as unfortunate to me as it is for you. If I knew a way out, I would, but this is where we are and your body is torn to heck with the accident. Yes, I can also get a taste of your memories if I push for it. Just, relax and try to rationalize what's happening right now. Remember anything about the operation?"

The little girl brought her right arm to her stomach, trying to supress her coughing fit. "I-I COUGH COUGH Can't!" She whined out, before finally after almost a whole minute of coughing it died down. Lucky for the snake nobody heard Cherry's cries for help, nor did they hear her coughing out a lung. While her coughing slowed down, the girl would also calm down as the snake spoke to her. His words as sweet as honey and lowering her guard. Cherry was still quite confused and scared, but those feelings wheren't towards the snake anymore. Well the scared part that is, she was still mighty confused about the little guy in her arm. "I am sorry I tried to slap you mister snake, you just scared me." The girl whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

The girl tried to take the snake's advice and relax a little bit. Closing her eyes and trying to remember what happened. "People where, messing with my arm......... The one you where in. I remember they said something about a 'shadow.' And not like a person's shadow either. It's like they where talking about some sort of monster or something." Her head was still in some major pain, so the memories where still only slowly returning to her. "My name is Cherry. Cherry Shibuya. What is your name mister snake?"

Shibuya? Did he hear that correctly? The snake turned around and did a double-take as it slithered over Cherry and stared into her eyes.

"Shibuya? My name is Kogami Shibuya, and if you are a Shibuya, then... perhaps we are related? Rather loosely? Is that why the operation worked? Haha, well kid you are in a lifetime of shit because they fused a supernatural force into your arm. The good news is, we are kin, so I'm cutting you a break. We are relatives and our existence is currently tied to each other, so accept it quickly. Someone like me wouldn't be here unless they suspect something terrible happening later, and i doubt id want my line wiped out. "

Looking around, kogami found Cherry's medical chart. They must have lazily placed it there since she was unable to get up.  To cherry, it looked like the snake was reading it and humming.

"Alright, you're going to use my powers a bit to speed up this healing. It's like shedding your skin, but maybe that'll cause too much attention. What do you think? Want outta here? I suggest you wait, because if you want more of my powers to materialize, you'll relive my trauma, and I died twice. You won't be able to handle it. "

In the span of a few seconds, many bombs had been unloaded on to the girl. Leaving her jaw wide open as she tried her best to process all the important info she just got. "How can we be related? You're a snake." She said in a simple, almost deadpan way before shaking her head, as if to dismiss those thoughts for the time being. "But besides that. W-what do you mean we are fused? Like forever or are we going to spilt apart one day? I don't really want you living in my arm my whole life honestly." After those words left her lips, she would hold her right hand up in the air. "N-no offensive of course! I am s-sure this is uncomfortable for you too mister Kogami."

The girl tilted her head to the side to try and see what he was reading. She couldn't make out any words, but she could tell that it was some sort of little clipboard. "I guess so. I don't really like being stuck here, these tubes are really uncomfortable. But I don't know how to use your powers. Do I have to say magic words, or something like that? And um, how did you die twice? I was under the impression that you can only die once and that's it." Everything about this was strange and confusing to the girl but that point was probably the weirdest at the moment. "Why would those people do this to m- I mean to us? Did I do something wrong? Or was it you? Did you do something to make them mad mister Kogami?"

"Oh, yea?! And I don't want to be attached to some brat! But we can't all get what we want can we?"

Assessing the situation was the most important thing to Kogami right now, he didn't want to pay Cherry any mind if all she was going to do was complain about her situation. She needed to adapt quickly, that's how Kogami always did it. In addition to that, he noticed that the world around him seemed normal for the time being. Did that much time really pass?

"You die twice by trusting people. That's the only way it'll ever get as fucked up as it does. As for whether I did something. No, no crimes. I tried to do something right that I was punished for. Imagine playing a video game as the "hero", you beat one of the final bosses' "minions" and then you are abandoned by your "comrades" and "Executed" for it. Does that sound like I'm having fun yet? Do you understand that at least?"

Calming down, Kogami would simply suck his teeth and slither back.

"Alright, let's start the healing process. You're going to have a few nightmares but don't worry. It's just my memories. The more you experience, the more you have access to, theoretically."

With Kogami receding into Cherry's arm, her skin would start to crawl as she felt drowsy. If she did fall asleep, she would start to experience some of Kogami's earlier memories, receiving power from the crawling chaos and working as the school discipline committee. Afterward, having to escape with his power from being cornered when everything he acted on was what he was told to do. But even the person who told him to do it was false. The memories moved quickly, to every lie, and every bit of pain, loneliness, and agony Kogami experienced. Up until the point, he was shot dead.

"Don't yell at me! I didn't do anything wr- COUGH COUGH -ong!" Cherry said back in a very upset tone. She didn't really sign up for having a weird snake slithering around in her body. And she would have liked some time to take it all it, sadly it was becoming increasely clear to the blonde that, as Kogami said. She was waist deep in trouble somebody else caused and dragged her into, and she probably won't have all that much time to prepare. "I am sorry that happy to you mister. It sounds like you fell in with a bad crowd." Her voice wasn't all that empathetic, mostly due to the fact she struggled with trying to understand the feelings of the rude snake in the state she was in. Still saying nothing would be rude, so she went with a simple reply.

Cherry eyes widen a bit as Kogami went back into her arm, she could feel the effects take place almost immediately. Her eyelids feeling like they have two-ton weights on them, as she fought off the urge to yawn as hard as she could. "K-kogami no. Come back h-here. I still have mo-YAWN -re questions........... Trailing off the girl's head would soon fall on to the fluffly pillow. Sweat starting to reak out on her forehead as new memories, Kogami's memories, flooded her mind. Tainting her young brain with his past. Her emotions and thoughts about his actions where almost getting blocked out by his hate and pain, and even the emotions that was her own was being effect by Kogami at this point. In one swift motion Cherry had already become less of a single person, and more of a vessel for his will and power.

In the waking world, the girl would be tossing and turning. Grinding her teeth and clenching her fist as the memories entered her psyche. As all his memories entered so did his powers, her bones knitting themselves back together, her weak muscle replacing in mass, a strange energy filled her chest as her throat cleared up. After a few mintues Cherry bolted up from her sleep, in a cold sweat and a foul mood from all that she had just saw. "What in the fuck was that!" She growled out in a tone that you would never except to hear out of a ten year old girl.

"if you thought power didn't come at a price, someone lied to you.   It comes at certain stages in order to keep your mental sanity intact. But if you can't handle the first initial synchronization, it'll just swallow you from the inside out. That' and I'm pretty much a nasty shadow from the fact that one, I had powers before all of this . And two, where it came from. Oh, and three, how it ended for me. For the record, that was only half. I shielded you from the other bit. "

Slithering out of the arm again, Kogami took a deep breath and started to check on Cherry's wellbeing. Everything from the inside seemed to be working just fine. He could materialize a full body, but he didn't want to.  Being a snake was fine, it was probably easier for a 10-year-old to understand.

"Congratulations, you are beaming with health.  Now let's get out of here or something.  I don't know how long I've been out or what part of the world I'm on. "

"I didn't ask you for any powers." Cherry muttered as he explained about how all of this worked. She wasn't all that thrilled to hear about what would come with more of his power, but in the end everything should be fine. The girl wasn't lusting after his powers or anything, she really just wanted to stay away from those strange people. And maybe get back at those people who had caused Kogami trouble in the past, of course those where less of her feelings and more of the man's memories tainting her. The blonde softly reached out for a tube, and woukd start to slowly but surely wiggle it out. Once she finished and saw nothing was going to rush out of her, or any other strange and scary sideffect, she started to work on the other things that where attached to her. Eager to earn her freedom.

After she unplugged and unhooked herself from everything, she slip out of the bed and walked towards the door, keeping her ears and eyes open to try and see if anybody was outside. Which there was, nurses and doctors where walking up and down the hall every other second. "Since you're so smart, why don't you tell me something I can do to escape, huh?" Cherry asked in a rather bratty tone, annoyed by this and still quite moody from her terror-filled cat nap.

"Escape huh? Depends, the easiest way is the windows and we would have to move rather quickly so that we don't catch any attention from others. Not like I care, but if you want to be looking like a spiderman in a medical gown, I'm gun-ho for that."

But perhaps it would be easier to sleuth around.

"Since I'm special and pretty powerful, I think you can make quite use of my talents. That was the point of living through my memories, you can borrow some of them. Unfortunately, I'm no role model. I'm a criminal, but I was one of the best. So that means if you want to sneak out of here, you can as if you were a thief in the night."

To call upon one of Kogami's talents should be natural to Cherry. In addition to what she could do, she could also do what Kogami could do.

Strength

Spoiler:

When Kogami brought up escaping through the window, Cherry would cut her eyes at the snake and purse her lips. Cleary not the biggest fan of said idea. "Kogami, I am pretty sure we are being watched by those creepy people who fused us together. Do you really think jumping through the window is the best way to go about things?" There really was no subtle way of going about jumping out of a window. She was either going to die, or have to do something flashy in order to escape unharmed, which would bring more eyes on her. Which she of course did not want.

"Yeah I saw that." Cherry sighed before shaking her head. "I guess my dreams of bring a zoo keeper are dead now huh? They're never gonna let me in with the track record I am about to build for myself." She muttered softly to herself before she opened the door and rushed out of it, with speed, grace, and stealth she wasn't aware she had before all of this. And to be fair she probably didn't have this before, it was most likely all Kogami. But it didn't matter, in the end Cherry got out of there unnotice. "Okay so now what? I am guessing I should find a chance of clothes. People are going to notice if I am walking around the street wearing this."

"Clothing? Oh, that's easy. You have a choice of pretty much one outfit, but it's an easy fix." With Cherry glowing with green energy very briefly, clothing would start to form on her body. If she paid attention to her night terror pretty well, she would look a little like kogami with the green hair, and the outfit that she was wearing resembled him. "This shouldn't bring too much attention to yourself and if it does, just say that you are a cosplayer. People seem to discriminate against green hair back in the day but it's the redheads that are the unnatural ones. " Sucking his teeth, Kogami would simply let Cherry take all this in, including her new look.

cherry's alternative look

Spoiler:

Cherry would let out a small gasp of shock as she noticed a green aura cover her. After Kogami began to talk the girl would rush over to a nearby car and use the window to look at herself. She couldn't help but let out a scoff upon seeing what she looked like. This was not what she would normally liked to dress up as in the slightest. The heels where very uncomfortable and she could swear the suit the snake wore when he had a body didn't show this much skin or have any leggings. Although the thing she took offensive to most was how much he made her look like him. She still wanted to be her own person, not some mini Kogami. Placing a hand on her she let out a soft sigh, shaking her head she lifted up her legs and grabbed her foot.

"Aren't we a little full of ourselves?" Cherry muttered as she took off the first heel and tossed it to the side. "Listen, Kogami. I understand that you haven't had a good life. And trust me I do not like those people who did this to you either, but you are still in my body. Not the other way around. You need to start asking me, before you start filling me with powers and changing how I look. I mean seriously, I am going to be in so much trouble if mama and papa see me like this!" Cherry tried her best to be reasonable even in her bad mood as she tossed the second heel away. "I guess those can be a gift for a luckly lady that wants them."